Bea and Jasper are just a few weeks away from the chicks hatching. March 28 and March 31 will mark the fifth week for the 3rd and 4th eggs. Other than Jasper bringing in fish and then assisting with incubation, not much has been happening at the platform.
 

Today marks the second week since the third egg was laid and eleven days for the fifth egg. We don't anticipate the third egg being viable as it was not incubated for several days. The third egg is the mostly brown one.

We believe we could see some chicks after April 11th, which begins the 35th day since the first egg being laid. We haven't had any osprey chicks the last two years so we are anxiously awaiting the month of April.

We have another osprey that is attempting to land on the platform. Currently Jasper is away from the nest leaving Bea to fight off the intruder. Upon writing this Jasper has returned. 

The intruder osprey has been flying about the nest for about an hour now causing the pair a bit of stress. Bea is back to incubating the eggs.

Bea has laid her fourth egg, the second for the pair, Saturday, February 24th. the 3rd egg was laid February 21st. Initially Bea laid two eggs from a previous male, but those eggs were not incubated. The two cinnamon colored eggs are from Jasper. The brown egg is from the first male and not viable. 

Below is Jasper from this morning with the eggs. 

 

Bea has laid another egg. It is possible this egg could be produced from Jasper. The dark cinnamon colored egg is the latest egg. Bea or Jasper could push the older egg away from the nest cup since it is no longer viable.

Bea seldom incubated her first two eggs, but has immediately incubated this egg and continues to do so.

Bea laid a second egg Friday late afternoon egg - 4:20pm. This egg is undoubtedly from the male that was on the nest in January. The 1st egg is broken and the 2nd egg is being covered over. As Jasper and Bea continue to mate we await a second clutch.

 

Will the real Jasper please stand up. 

Yesterday while observing the nest, it dawned on us that the male osprey appeared different than the male that had been on the nest since January 26th. Upon closer inspection of photos, much closer, we discovered that we were wrong in announcing Jasper’s arrival in January. He actually came to the platform February 14th. Such timing, right? :) The photos we took of the latest male matched Jasper's eye marks and markings on and around his beak. As past observers may remember we do not band the ospreys that frequent our communications tower so we are left to matching photographs, which isn’t a perfect science. 

Yesterday the male was witnessed hunched over with his back to Bea. That posture is what threw us off. Why would Jasper be mantling with Bea at this point in time? So back to past photos we went. The markings between the males are similar, but when we took better pictures of the newest male, it was evident that we misidentified the first male osprey as Jasper. Sorry for the confusion. 

Now the real Jasper and Bea have settled down and have begun to mate. Bea is back and forth on the nest so we are hopeful she continues on at the platform.

As quickly as the first egg appeared, we may have already lost it. Bea did not incubate the egg most of this morning and apparently did not do so last night either.  As of this post she is sitting on the egg, but most likely it is too late. We will have to wait and see. 

 

Not sure what is happening with the first egg. Bea has not been incubating it for most of the day. It is possible the egg is not viable. Currently a crow is checking out the egg.

We have our first egg of the 2018 season. Longtime viewer, Beth, noticed the egg last night about 6:47. I have to admit I didn’t think the pair would have an egg this early since Jasper arrived only less than three weeks ago.

In the past eight years Bea has laid her first egg on the following dates:

12 Feb
17 Feb
16 Feb
2 Mar
7 Mar
13 Mar
24 Mar
25 Mar

Bea seems a bit unsettled this morning as she flew off and left the egg momentarily unattended until Jasper flew to the platform. 

We finally obtained photos that we can match to previous years and can announce that Jasper is back. He arrived January 26th, but we weren't sure it was him, due to his back facing the camera.

The pair has been quite busy this morning restoring the nest by bringing in sticks and spanish moss. A few attempts at mating has taken place now that Jasper's submissive posturing has lessened. Below are a few pics from this morning showing their work.

We still have yet to confirm that the male osprey on the nest is definitely Jasper. But Bea's acceptance of him on the platform makes us believe it may be him. The photos we have taken are not good enough yet to match up to previous seasons. The male has attempted to mate, but Bea has shrugged off his advances. His back is normally to her so they may still be in courtship mode.

The male osprey we spotted a few days back has returned. Unfortunately, we can't obtain a good enough photo to compare to previous photographs of Jasper. Bea hasn't been too aggressive towards the male, but continues to force him away from the platform. If it is Jasper, maybe a fish will seal the deal. :)

We are not positive if Jasper has returned, but another osprey landing on the nest at 10:08 this morning then quickly departed. We'll be observing the tower for any osprey other than Bea and will report back as soon as we can obtain photos to check out markings, etc.

Welcome to the 2018 Season

Welcome to Palmetto Electric’s 2018 Osprey Cam season! With the arrival of Bea on January 16^th, we are anticipating a successful breeding season. As we await Jasper’s return, this will be the pairs eighth season and marks our eleventh season broadcasting our nest from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

The last two years Bea and Jasper lost a total of seven eggs and one chick. The nest’s interior was not built up, therefore; the chick and eggs fell through the fencing. On October 18, 2017, a crew installed construction cloth, which is a wire grid that is welded together at each cross section. The cloth abuts directly beneath the fencing. This should prevent any of the previous year’s mishaps and assist with fortifying the platform.

We thank you for joining us for another osprey season at Palmetto Electric and we look forward to seeing fledging ospreys.

Below is a photo of Bea that was taken this morning.

Osprey Nest Update....

We have completed the job of securing a protective layer underneath the platform to keep eggs and chicks from falling through the nest, while not disturbing the existing nesting material for future osprey seasons. The new layer is flush against the existing fencing so no gaps exist and is secured every few inches.

Palmetto Electric is in the process of reaching out to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, SCDNR, to discuss ways to improve the nesting platform. These discussions will include improvements and a timeline to implement changes that will benefit the ospreys.

With Palmetto's support of the osprey program, we will cover the cost of any improvements. As soon as we have an approved plan, we will post it here.

Yes, it appears that we lost the 4th & 5th eggs. Bea and Jasper never built up the interior base of the nest except with Spanish Moss.  With Bea and Jasper incubating the eggs with no base of twigs, limbs, etc. to keep the nest together the eggs eventually they fell through the nest.

The fourth egg has been pushed down below the Spanish Moss and Bea and Jasper seem to be only focused on the fifth egg. The fourth egg must not be viable as they only seem concerned with the last egg. The arrow is pointing to the little portion of the fourth egg that is still visible.

We are crossing our fingers for the last egg to produce a chick.
 

Bea has laid another egg, totaling 5 at this point. The first three eggs fell through the thin base of the nest. Five eggs is a first for us since we have had the camera since 2007.

Bea laid the 4th egg yesterday afternoon. Both Jasper and Bea have been adding leaves and spanish moss to the nest, which hopefully they reinforced enough so the egg doesn't fall through as the first three.

Bea has laid her fourth egg. It's been quite some time when we had four eggs. Hopefully this fourth egg will survive the nest's thin base.

It has been confirmed that the two eggs fell through the nest. In past years Bea has laid three eggs so it's possible for the pair to have another egg.

The second egg was laid Sunday.

We have our first egg of 2017.  

Welcome to Palmetto Electric's 2017 Osprey Season

We are opening the seventh season with our osprey pair, Bea and Jasper, and celebrating our 10th year overall broadcasting images of our osprey nest located off Mathews Drive on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Bea arrived January 10th at 8:25 a.m. and Jasper arrived this morning, January 31st, at 7:08 a.m. The pair have produced eleven offspring in the past six years. Unfortunately for the pair the nest failed last year so we are eager for Bea and Jasper to have a successful 2017 season.

Luckily, the pair still has much of their nest remaining on top of the platform. We were quite surprised to see it after Hurricane Matthew hit during the night of October 7, 2016.

Hilton Head experienced maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, just 1 mph shy of a category 3 hurricane. The island took a blow, but it didn't take long for the ospreys that hang around to be seen and heard around the island. It has been estimated that Hilton Head lost over 120,000 trees and that number could climb. So Bea and Jasper are fortunate to not have to build their nest from scratch. They should have an easier time finding twigs and other material to add to their nest as there are stockpiles of tree debris scattered about the island.

We welcome all of our viewers/bloggers to our site and hope you enjoy Bea and Jasper and osprey chicks.

Our 2017 Osprey Blog is not officially open just yet, but wanted to let everyone know that Bea arrived the morning of January 10, 2017. We are awaiting Jasper's return so the pair can begin rebuilding their nest and start a new family of ospreys.